


Rebirth is Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose

by fresne



Category: Solar System (Anthropomorphic)
Genre: Misuse of Science, Other, Sciencey!, Yuletide 2015, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-22
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-05-08 07:28:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5488763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fresne/pseuds/fresne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>101955 Bennu hurtled alone in the void. It wasn't all bleak. Xie was an Apollo asteroid. So, xie had a near solar orbit, which wasn't exactly close. There were other Apollo asteroids, which xie never saw. Xie came close enough to Earth every few years to... not really be heard.</p><p>So it was a complete surprise the moment that Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx for short) came calling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rebirth is Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Idhren](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idhren/gifts).



101955 Bennu, or Bennu for short, hurtled through the void. Space as it was colloquially called.

Bennu was an Apollo asteroid. That meant xie stayed pretty close to the Sun. It had never even been out to the Asteroid belt, which sounded like it was full of asteroids hanging out and having fun. But Bennu told xierself that it wasn't much different than being close to the Sun. Space was so big that even a ring of asteroids was so spread out that most asteroids never even saw each other more than once an age. Bennu told xierself that they couldn't even see the Sun as well as Bennu could. That at least the Sun was a constant presence in xiers existence.

Xie hadn't always been asteroid. Once, xie had been part of a great big planet orbiting the Sun. Xie couldn't remember what its name had been. Xie just remembered a sense of belonging to some greater whole. Of tectonic shifting and stretching. Then something had happened. By something Bennu meant Jupiter had jumped orbit, hit the inner planets with xiers gravity and then jumped back into regular orbit. Bennu couldn't remember why. Bennu didn't want to. That was why xie referred to it as something happening.

But it knew that xiers planet and one of the other of the great planets orbiting close to the Sun had impacted into each other. They had exploded with tremendous force.

Bennu was lucky. A lot of the pieces of what it had been had fallen spiraling into the Sun. When xie had been a planet, xiers orbit had been very close to the Sun.

Bennu still remembered that time. One moment xie had been a part of some greater whole, and the next shattered and spinning through space without anything to hold on to. Xie had watched as other recently separated parts of itself were consumed by the Sun. Their voices as they spun away. The Sun's great voice crackling throughout the inner solar system as it hummed a dirge for the dying pieces of worlds.

Xie had been lucky enough to spin out and away from the Sun, until the Sun reached out with xiers gravity and steadied xie into a stable orbit. At least Bennu hadn't become an orphan away from the Solar System. Alone without even the Sun to look at.

Of course, some of the pieces had reformed into planets. Bennu thought about that sometimes. That some of the others became part of something again.

There was a lot of time to think in space.

After a very long time, it got to be that every six times that Bennu went around the Sun, xie would pass by Earth. Xie would twinkle blue and white. They'd been getting closer for eons. Bennu wished they could come close enough to ask if they were part of the same giant planet or not. Bennu would yell questions.

Earth would sometimes yell back, "What was that? Could you speak up? I can't hear you. You're too far away."

That was about it.

The sum total of contact. A halfway conversation every six cycles around the Sun. The feathered touched of Solar winds humming the Sun's song. Bennu's memories.

Bennu rarely even saw the other Apollo asteroids. They had to be there. Theoretically speaking, but mostly, Bennu orbited alone in the void of space.

So, that's what Bennu was doing, orbiting, when it happened.

First it was just a tiny voice. "Hey, I'm Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer, but you can call me OSIRIS-REx. I'm here on a mission from Earth to get to know you. Your name is Bennu, but you probably know that, and you really do look like a Bennu bird. That's why the scientists back home worked so hard to name my OSIRS-Rex. Also, it’s a pretty cool name. Anyway, a Bennu was sort of like the Egyptian phoenix. Though I suppose the phoenix came later. Anyway, it's taken me two years to get even this close so I can say hi. So, hi, I'm OSIRIS-REx. Oh, I said that already. It's just that this so exciting."

"Uh," Bennu looked around the emptiness of space, "Are you talking to me?"

OSIRIS-REx came closer. "Well, of course I'm talking to you. Who else would I be talking to? Well, the folks back home. We're in frequent communication." OSIRIS-REx came closer. Bennu could see that xie had two little blue wings that came out of the golden box of xiers body, and had a wide white cone nose.

Something tickled and pulsed at Bennu's surface. Bennu laughed. Bennu hadn't actually known that xie could laugh until that moment. Bennu had never had a reason to laugh.

"Sorry, that was me," said Orisis-Rex. "Part of my mission is to create an exact map of your surface with OLA, my Osiris Laser Altimeter. I'm supposed to probe you with high and low lasers at certain times so I can map your surface, but I suppose I should have asked first. I'm sorry, it's just this is so exciting to finally be this close to you. Should I stop?"

"No, no," said Bennu. "You can keep probing me. It feels…" Bennu wasn't sure what it felt like. Xie settled for, "It's fine. It's fine."

OSIRIS-REx assumed a tight orbit around Bennu of only five kilometers up and resumed touching Bennu in short high and low bursts. "Oh, good. I was worried. I'm going to be here for a long time, over one and a half rotations around the sun. Basically until we get close to Earth. I was worried I'd gotten off onto the wrong solar array after dropping in unannounced. I mean, I tried to ping some signals off you earlier, but you were too far away." OSIRIS-REx adjusted xiers antennae. "Oh, hey, Curiosity on Mars just pinged me on Twitter. I should take a selfie with my OCAMs. I can take pictures in all sorts of spectrums."

"Um, okay," said Bennu, who wasn't sure what was going on.

OSIRIS-REx spun and held out with a long extension arm with a camera at the end. OSIRIS-REx used small jets on xiers sides to steady the picture. "There that's a good one. I got both of us. Oh! Curiosity on Mars just retweeted my post. Juno did too. Oh, this is great."

"Where's Juno?" asked Bennu.

OSIRIS-REx pulled xiers arm back in and resumed probing Bennu. "Oh, xiers mission is to look into Jupiter."

Bennu spun rapidly.

"What?" asked OSIRIS-REx. "Slow down. What's wrong? Was it something I did?"

"I…" Bennu slowed xiers spin. "No. Solar wind on my surface." Bennu orbited through the void. OSIRIS-REx blinking down in concern at xie. "It's just… I don't like to think about Jupiter."

"Okay, ixnay on the Jupiteray," said OSIRIS-REx, "Anyway New Horizon's mission was cooler. Xie used the gravity of the celestial body that we'll be calling Big Gassy from here on out to head out into the outer solar system." OSIRIS-REx paused at Bennu's giggle.

A shaft of carbonaceous rock shifted deep inside Bennu as a result of OSIRIS-REx's small gravitational tug. Bennu said, "Go on."

"Sorry, it's just good to hear you laugh. Anyway, New Horizons boosted out using Big Gassy's gravity to go all the way out to Pluto, or is Pluto a sore subject too?"

"No, Pluto's fine." Bennu had never even heard of Pluto, but Bennu imagined xie must be some massive Ice Giant far out in the solar system. "Is that what you're here to do? Boost off of my gravity? I'm not sure how that will work. I'm not very big."

"No, silly, I'm here to study you. You hold the building blocks of our solar system. Size isn't the only important thing. You're the reason I exist. That means that for me, out of all the celestial bodies in our solar system, you're the most important. When my mission is done here, I'll take a sample of you back to Earth for study. By getting to know you, we can understand the history of everything that much better."

"Oh!" said Bennu, struck by a sense of impending loss. Soon in the cosmic scheme of things, OSIRIS-REx would leave. But after a spin, decided to exist in the here and now. Xie wanted to treasure every moment of connection.

"Was that too much? I'm sorry, I know we just met, but… you're so very important to me." OSIRIS-REx pointed xiers antennae towards Earth. "I'll be quiet and send back data now."

"No, you can… you're more important to me than any other celestial body too." It was true. Space was cold even bathed in the solar winds. The void was a void.

OSIRIS-REx said, "Would it be… I want to give you a thermal push for um… reasons. Is that okay?"

"Yes, I want, yes," said Bennu.

OSIRIS-REx sent a pulse of warmth at Bennu.

Bennu said, "I haven't felt so warm in…." Bennu remembered having an atmosphere. Bennu shivered, but not with cold and shifted in xiers orbit.

"Oh, gosh, my OTES, that's my Osiris Thermal Emission Spectrometer, is showing that you're really heating up."

"Please," said Bennu. Although xie hardly knew what xie was asking.

OSIRIS-REx came closer to Bennu, flying almost 700 meters above Bennu's surface. "I'm going to image you with my REXIS, that's my Regolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer."

Bennu had never been so aware of the solar x-rays interacting with the solar winds. OSIRIS-REx said, "You're fluorescing! Bennu, you're so beautiful!"

Bennu felt beautiful. "I can almost feel you looking in my core. I feel you." Bennu's solid core shifted as ice melted and reformed, and a tiny crack emerged.

Bennu rotated around the Sun. OSIRIS-REx rotated around Bennu.

"I'm updating my relationship status," said OSIRIS-REx. "Time for another photo of you."

Bennu wasn't sure if it was the best picture. Bennu liked the thermal image OSIRIS-REx took even better. Bennu looked warm, relative to the void of space, in that picture.

Sometimes OSIRIS-REx would run xiers OVIRS, that was short for OSIRIS-REx Visible and IR Spectrometer, over Benu. OSIRIS-REx was always mapping Bennu with pulses from xiers OLA. Bennu turned in space and felt seen. Bennu felt known. The tiny crack at Bennu's core widened as Earth grew closer and the day OSIRIS-REx had to leave approached.

Sometimes OSIRIS-REx would show Bennu what was going on in the rest of the solar system. Curiosity was very active on Twitter. OSIRIS-REx posted almost as much. Sometimes OSIRIS-REx would say, "Oh, noes!" But always assured Bennu it was something on Twitter and absolutely nothing to do with xie. Absolutely nothing to do with Bennu's rating on the Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale. Nothing at all.

Bennu preferred it when OSIRIS-REx talked about the one time they would touch. They were going to actually touch. One touch by OSIRIS-REx's TAGSAM, that was xiers Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism, but mostly OSIRIS-REx called it xiers arm. OSIRIS-REx would come close enough to get a small sample of Bennu's surface to take home.

It felt good to know that some part of it would be going with OSIRIS-REx.

The crack widened.

"Oh, noes!" said OSIRIS-REx. "My scans show that you've developed a fissure. That definitely wasn't there when I got here. I would know. I've mapped everything about you."

"It's not important," said Bennu, feeling hollow and empty. Earth was a visible sphere in the distance of space.

"No… it's…" OSIRIS-REx sent a brief burst of static, "Okay, I haven't been completely honest with you."

Bennu felt a chill that had nothing to with the void. "What?"

"The reason my scientists selected you for this mission was because there was a point zero seven percent chance that you'd hit the Earth in one of eight possible windows between 2169 and 2199. You had the third highest rating on the Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale."

"So, I'm not... I'm not the most important…"

"Now you stop right there!" said OSIRIS-REx. "Yes, part of my mission was to get close to you because that will help my scientists know what the results would be if you impacted the Earth, which let me tell you would have been an extinction level event."

Bennu spun. "Is that all I am, a mission to you?"

"No! I meant it when I said you're the reason I exist. That for me, you're the most important celestial body in the universe. And you're not hearing me, I said would have been." OSIRIS-REx shifted xiers solar panels. "Another part of my mission was to measure the effect of the Yarkosky effect, is um… the effect of a thermal force on an object in space."

"It certainly had an effect on me," said Bennu, sadly.

"Well, yeah, the point was to see if I could gently push you away from an impact path with Earth. It didn't seem to be working, but... you've developed a fissure, which changed your orbit. You're totally not going to hit the Earth now."

"Oh, that's…" Bennu wanted to say that was good. Bennu wanted to say that it was good that xie wouldn't be hitting the Earth in a high impact strike. But Bennu was going to be alone again soon. "Fine."

"Yeah," said OSIRIS-REx. "It's awesome. The most important celestial body in the universe is going to keep orbiting. I couldn't be happier."

"Yeah," said Bennu. "So… is it time to touch?" Bennu almost didn't want it to be. That was when OSIRIS-REx would leave.

OSIRIS-REx flashed xiers solar panels. "I want to touch too, but I'd better do a few more scans before I do."

Bennu felt the same old feelings as OSIRIS-REx scanned xie. As Bennu called out OSIRIS-REx's name into the void, the fissure widened with a palpable ache.

Finally OSIRIS-REx said, "Okay, I'm ready." OSIRIS-REx flew closer and closer. Bennu could feel the brush of xiers propulsion system on xiers surface.

OSIRIS-REx reached out with xiers arm and carefully took a sample from Bennu's surface. Bennu shook with the sensation.

"Steady there, I've got you," said OSIRIS-REx.

But that was the problem. OSIRIS-REx would be going. Moments of connection and OSIRIS-REx was moving away. One more orbit. Bennu could see Earth in the distance.

OSIRIS-REx was getting smaller already. Xie called out, "Never forget, you’re the most important celestial object in my existence."

When OSIRIS-REx was too far away to hear, Bennu said softly, "While you were the only object in mine."

Time passed. Bennu was alone. The void seemed even wider now. Bennu did not crash into the Earth. Bennu hardly cared.

The fissure widened. Wider and longer until one day, Bennu split in half.

101955-B Bennu said to 101955-A Bennu, "Hello."

Just as 101955-A Bennu was saying, "Hello."

"Jinx," they both said and laughed.

It was the first time Bennu had laughed in… actually Bennu was a new Bennu, what with being Bennu-A and Bennu-B now. As they often discussed, the very first thing they did was laugh. They had plenty to talk about, because there were actually fairly different.

Bennu-A had a higher silica content. Bennu-B was made up of more carbonates and sulphates. They rotated closely around each other.

Sometimes they'd see the Earth, which seemed a little smaller now that their orbit had shifted. Bennu-A said, "I wonder how OSIRIS-REx is doing?"

Bennu-B said, "I wonder if xie knows that xiers the reason we're here. Split like this."

"Together," said Bennu-A.

They resonated.

Bennu-A and Bennu-B remembered being Bennu like being another celestial being. Even the idea of feeling lonely seemed alien. They were never alone. They would gently bump and rub at the place where they had once been one.

How could they be lonely? They had each other.

**Author's Note:**

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSIRIS-REx  
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/101955_Bennu  
> http://www.permanent.com/apollo-amor-aten-near-earth-asteroids.html  
> planets-out-of-the-solar-system/
> 
> I'm making up Bennu's origins. Well, who knows. Could be true. Probably not. Based on these theories.  
> http://www.sciencealert.com/jupiter-came-through-like-a-wrecking-ball-and-paved-the-way-for-earth  
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Tack_Hypothesis
> 
> Anyways, let's go send a robot to find out!  
> Also, not how the Yarkosky effect tests will work. Possibly other things. Um, this story is like sciencey!
> 
> If after reading my fiction here, you would like to read more about me and my writing check out my profile.


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